Schwass: Kangaroos should approach umps

North Melbourne premiership star Wayne Schwass has urged the Kangaroos to approach the AFL umpiring department with a dossier of Brent Macaffer’s negating tactics as part of a bid to help quell the Collingwood tagger on Saturday.

Having held Trent Cotchin to only 13 possessions on Friday night, with the Richmond skipper later claiming Macaffer had ''got away with a lot'', the Magpies’ shutdown specialist will now take aim at a prime Kangaroos midfielder, presumably Brent Harvey or Daniel Wells.

AFL operations chief Mark Evans said on Monday the ''hard tag''’ was back in vogue, with run-with players following their opponent for an entire match, as opposed for just segments, for instance only at stoppages.

Since taking on the role last year, Macaffer has been so successful he is rated behind only Fremantle hardnut Ryan Crowley for his ability to silence an opposition midfielder.

Macaffer’s tactics, however, have been questioned, with even umpires' coach Hayden Kennedy declaring on Saturday he did not like the way Cotchin was regularly impeded. Kennedy also said he had noticed an increase in debatable tactics used by taggers in recent weeks.

Macaffer, at times, appeared to hold Cotchin and had his back to the play, his focus only on stopping Cotchin.

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Schwass, a midfielder in the Kangaroos’ 1996 premiership side and now a radio commentator, said the Roos should this week seek clarification over what Macaffer was allowed to do.

''The first thing I would do is ring Wayne Campbell and the umpiring department. I would have picked out a number of examples that I saw involving Brent Macaffer and Trent Cotchin at the weekend to get clarification to understand what is permittable and what is not permittable,'' he said.

''I think the subtlety of that is to flag with the umpiring department we would want for whoever Brent goes to to be paid pretty close attention.''

The AFL's Evans said it was difficult for umpires to notice all infringements as they were also required to keep an eye on incidents at other ends of the ground to where the ball was.

''The role of the tagger in the last five or six years now seems to be coming back to a much more hard tag and it’s difficult for an umpire to be in a perfect position for every moment of the game to see some of those tactics,'' he said.

''As a general rule, we like to see our stars have a free run at the game but we also appreciate there is a role for a lockdown player, but they must do that within the bounds of the rules.

''I have no doubt across the weekend you’ll find players had negating tactics that should have been picked up, and I am not just talking about that game [Richmond and Collingwood], or that pairing [Cotchin and Macaffer], and the challenge for umpiring is to how do they make sure they are in the best position to see all those things.

''The communication system they [umpires] use on match day, they usually point out key match ups to watch. But sometimes it’s easier around the ball - it’s very difficult to pick up sometimes 50, 60, 70 metres away. That’s the challenge for our umpires - how they work through that.''

The Tigers have been criticised for not helping Cotchin shake the tag by muscling Macaffer and bumping him at stoppages.

Schwass said the Kangaroos needed to keep two things in mind when Macaffer went to his opponent at the MCG on Saturday.

''I have a fairly strong view in how they should handle taggers. That is, and the thing that frustrated me on Friday night, I didn’t see a Richmond player go and help out his teammate,'' he said.

''I saw nobody try to get in the way of Brent Macaffer, block him, bump him within the rules of the game. I can only recall one cheap possession that a teammate gave to him.

''Geelong made a habit out of getting Gary Ablett into the game early by cheap possessions and looking after him. Irrespective of who Brent Macaffer goes to, the Kangaroos, the 21 other players, have to make it a part of whatever they do through the course of the match, to give protection and bring a Boomer Harvey or Daniel Wells into the game as quickly as possible because if you don’t do that, that certainly makes Brent Macaffer’s job a hell of a lot easier.''